Pitter patter: Women are set to receive thousands of pounds for donating their eggs under a plan to help more infertile women conceive (posed by model)

Women are set to receive thousands of pounds for donating their eggs under a plan to help more infertile women conceive.

It would remove the current limit of £250 compensation for undergoing the complex process, which involves taking powerful and potentially dangerous drugs and having a ‘harvesting’ operation.

The plans, unveiled today in a consultation by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, would aim to prevent hundreds of ‘fertility tourists’ being driven abroad every year because of the drastic shortage of eggs in this country.

Sperm donors could also be compensated for their ‘inconvenience’.

Fertility doctors backed the move, but ethics groups expressed concern that women’s bodies were being turned into ‘commodities’.

The move comes after a High Court judge opened the way last year for surrogate mothers to be paid, a practice which had been banned.

The fertility watchdog, the HFEA, is now reviewing its policy after conceding that compensation rules are too complex.

In the United States, women can be paid up to £5,000 for allowing their eggs to be harvested.

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European law forbids cash payments but permits compensation, and the HFEA says it could be ‘more generous’ within current legislation. The change would not need to be approved by Parliament.

The small amount of cash given to donors has been blamed for the shortage of eggs in Britain, though a change in UK law which requires the identity of sperm or egg donors to be revealed to their children is also blamed by some experts for long waiting lists.

Dr Allan Pacey, a Sheffield University fertility expert, believes that British women donors should receive at least as much as those in Spain, who get around £765.

‘The experience of Spain has shown that it is a reasonable amount that is not going to corrupt people,’ he said.

Privately, some clinics expect a far higher figure to be set in Britain.

But Dr David King, director of Human Genetics Alert, an independent watchdog group, said: ‘We believe it is simply wrong to turn human eggs into commodities.

‘This is a step towards a market in organs, with all the exploitation that entails.’

Dr Alex Plows of campaign group No2Eggsploitation said: ‘Financial compensation for egg donors will induce students with debts, and others, to take serious health risks and it is inevitable that many will be harmed.

Drugs used to boost egg production can cause ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome, a potentially fatal condition, and the retrieval of eggs using a long needle can be excruciatingly painful.

There are also fears of commercialisation, with eggs donated by beauty queens or Oxbridge graduates commanding the highest prices.

It is argued that more should be done to cure infertility and to encourage women to have children when they are young and their eggs still in good condition.

Although the HFEA is under threat as part of the Government’s bonfire of the quangos, it remains in charge of fertility rules and even if abolished, its consultation would be of key importance in deciding future policy.

The process, which uses a series of questionnaires on the HFEA website, finishes in April and decisions on changes in policy will be made in July.